Ted Costa, whose DavisRecall. com started the ball rolling, sits outside his Citrus Heights home and recalls: "All the ingredients were there."

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Ted Costa, whose DavisRecall. com started the ball rolling, sits...

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Ten years after being recall as the governor of California, Gov. Gray Davis sits for a portrait in the Four Seasons Hotel on March 19, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.
March 25, 2013 marked a decade since the birth of a groundbreaking grassroots political movement that rocked California and the nation â€” and planted the seeds of the Tea Party movement that has since reshaped national politics.
The great 2003 California Recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, begun by a few stalwart conservative activists and talk show hosts angered over the stateâ€™s car tax, started a political tidal wave that galvanized a new voter force and upended political convention. It also flashed the early power of online political organizing â€” it was the first major race where voters could download petitions online.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Ten years after being recall as the governor of California, Gov....

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Ted Costa, designated by the state as the authorized signature gatherer, prepared recall petitions and circulated them online.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle

Ted Costa, designated by the state as the authorized signature...

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Sal Russo is founder of Tea Party Express, which grew out of the recall effort.

A decade ago, furious California voters lined up to sign petitions for a longshot drive to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis - the start of a grassroots revolution that continues to transform state politics.

Months later, the improbable unseating of a California governor for the first time brought a more improbable successor: "Terminator" movie action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had not served a day in elected office.

Such a result, Schwarzenegger mused on his election night, could happen "only in America."

Or perhaps, only in California.

Looking back at the path torched by the political wildfire that consumed California in 2003, many of the recall's major players - and its critics - acknowledge that the state will never be the same as a result of reforms inspired by the recall.

Political activist Ted Costa launched DavisRecall.com in March 2003 and the recall petition drive took hold in April, fueled by voters angered over Davis' move to triple the vehicle license fee, the ballooning state budget deficit and his handling of a statewide energy crisis.

"History is going to have to judge if it was good, bad or indifferent," Davis said in a recent interview with The Chronicle. "An unscheduled election," he added, "tends to throw a monkey wrench into the process of government."

The threat of recall has since served as a raised club over elected officials - "a degree of humility that all politicians should learn to love," said former state GOP Chair Shawn Steele, the first Californian to put his name on a 2003 petition.

To the outside world, the recall was a seven-month reality show starring a cast of 135 candidates that included a porn actress, performance artists, a ferret enthusiast and onetime "Diff'rent Strokes" child star Gary Coleman, each basking in Andy Warhol's proverbial 15 minutes of fame. Getting on the ballot was relatively easy - collecting 65 signatures and paying a $3,500 fee.

Election's legacy

But while the sideshow performers disappeared after the ballots were counted, the recall's legacy has grown over a decade.

The "people's revolution," as it was dubbed at the time, laid the groundwork for a series of reforms that are transforming the way Californians choose their leaders - reforms that would not have occurred without the voter frustration expressed in the recall.

Among them: the top-two primary system, in which the two candidates receiving the most votes advance to the general election, regardless of their political affiliation, and a citizen-led effort to draw new political districts in the state.

The recall's rebellious conservative grassroots spirit helped give birth to the national Tea Party movement a few years later and magnified the political power of conservative talk radio personalities who fanned voter anger through the campaign.

In addition, the movement "was one of the first campaigns in which we saw a grassroots-based technology," with the first signatures to recall Davis collected on the Internet, recalled USC political scientist Dan Schnur, who advised business leader Peter Ueberroth, a recall candidate.

"You could make the case that the descendants of the California recall include everyone from Howard Dean to the Tea Party," Schnur said.

Jim Mayer, executive director of the nonpartisan government reform group California Forward, said the recall "was a voter intervention on a government they saw being out of control."

Since then, "California has been on its own version of a 12-step process," Mayer said, a political "recovery" that has resulted in landmark reforms that have made some state races more competitive. The election's legacy also can be seen in some of Gov. Jerry Brown's efforts to streamline government.

"We don't know whether we're at the beginning, middle or end of that process," Mayer said. "But we're in it."

Davis, who became only the second U.S. governor removed from office by voters, is philosophical about such political revolts.

Since former Gov. Hiram Johnson helped introduce an agenda of political reforms to the state in 1911, Davis said, "anyone who goes into politics in California knows that initiative, referendum and recall are part of the process."

"If you don't like it," Davis said, "go into some other line of work."

A 'perfect storm'

The seeds of California voters' discontent were planted in 2002, when Davis emerged battered from an exhausting, expensive battle with GOP opponent Bill Simon. Only 36 percent of California voters bothered to cast ballots in the November election.

The low turnout would boomerang on Davis. The threshold for the number of petition signatures required to trigger a recall is based on 12 percent of voter turnout from the previous gubernatorial election.

"We were so negative," said former Davis adviser Susan Kennedy, that by the time the contest ended, "the voters were in such a bad mood. I remember thinking we should not have won."

In his first term, Davis earned goodwill and buzz as a potential presidential candidate.

But the positive bounce quickly dissipated in what former Davis senior adviser Garry South called a "perfect storm" of cascading political problems that rocked Davis' second term, which began in January 2003, and hit average Californians in the wallet.

When the dot-com boom came to a screeching halt, the falling stock market pummeled the state budget, leaving a deficit of $38 billion.

Davis, a moderate, was caught in a furious political eddy. Republicans fumed about the budget deficit while Democratic lawmakers and major labor unions pressed for liberal favorites like driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants and reforms in workers' compensation. Such moves weakened the governor even more, Kennedy said.

"To this day, I look back and I say, 'It was the Democrats who threw him out of office,' " said Kennedy, who went on to become chief of staff to Schwarzenegger.

A major energy crisis, which some people still believe was manufactured by Republicans and energy companies, and a flawed deregulation plan resulted in rolling power blackouts and skyrocketing energy rates.

A revolt begins

"All the ingredients were there," said Costa, CEO of People's Advocate, a grassroots group founded by antitax crusaders Paul Gann and Howard Jarvis, the iconic organizers behind another state voter revolt - the property tax-cutting Proposition 13 in 1978.

Costa had been involved in many local recalls. He knew the time was ripe.

He and conservative radio hosts, including Melanie Morgan at San Francisco's KSFO-AM, began talking up a recall. Designated by the secretary of state as the authorized signature gatherer, he prepared petitions - and started circulating them online.

Supporters had 160 days to gather 897,158 valid signatures. But they needed money and key organizers who could manage the ensuing chaos.

Joining them was GOP strategist and veteran organizer Sal Russo, who has since co-founded Tea Party Express, a grassroots revolution that borrowed many organizing techniques from the state's recall. At first, Russo remembers trying to discourage the "unholy alliance" of recall forces. "I thought the grounds were insufficient," Russo said.

But Russo changed his mind after he got a call from California Teachers Association executive John Hein, a traditional Democratic ally. The union's internal polling showed Davis to be vulnerable to a recall, "and if you take charge," Russo recalled Hein telling him, "we can succeed."

Hein said union leaders were unhappy with Davis because they saw the governor as unsupportive of their political aims, but never directly encouraged Davis' ouster.

Still, that was enough encouragement for Russo. He and former Republican Assemblyman Howard Kaloogian plunged into the recall, believing GOP activists could be "pioneers ... and technology would enable us to reach people and get it done."

Fast money

In early April 2003, veteran Sacramento GOP consultant Dave Gilliard heard from his client, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County), a multimillionaire car alarm magnate mulling a run for governor. He wanted to know if the recall was real.

"I told Darrell that it would take a lot of money, very fast," Gilliard said.

Issa served up $1.7 million, enabling Gilliard to found Rescue California and hire professional signature gatherers, a necessity in a statewide campaign.

Gilliard remembered sending a young staffer to the post office to pick up petitions in the first week, "and I expected a tray, maybe 500."

"He came back with the car full, jammed top to bottom," Gilliard said. "I realized we had something."

By July, organizers had gathered nearly 1.3 million valid signatures, more than enough to qualify the measure for the ballot.

Former Davis adviser South said recently that Issa used his millions for "a total perversion" of the recall provision in the state Constitution, which was designed to remove officeholders for malfeasance and corruption. The movement to oust Davis "never would have qualified" without Issa, South said.

In a recent interview, Issa said he remains convinced that the recall was valid and justified.

"The recall was never about a Republican governor," Issa insisted. "It was about getting rid of someone who wouldn't act when the state needed him to act."

Despite efforts to draft him as candidate, Issa declined to run after Republican Schwarzenegger leapt into the race at the last minute.

Asked if he regretted not jumping in as a candidate in 2003, Issa said. "I have no regrets."

Cracking alliances

By then, the recall had shredded many of California's traditional political alliances.

The upcoming election had cornered Davis into making uncomfortable policy choices. Facing the end of his career, he found himself confronting a political truism: "Every ass you kick on the way up, you'll have to kiss on the way down," Kennedy said. "Every (special interest) group was thinking, 'What can I get out of this? I can finally get my bill.' "

Some Democrats wanted a backup plan should Davis be recalled. Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante announced plans to run for governor.

On the right, Republicans faced a similar dilemma: Should they support Schwarzenegger, a more liberal candidate who they thought could win, or a true conservative like then-state Sen. Tom McClintock?

McClintock, like Bustamante, resisted pressure from his party's leaders and donors to bow out.

The whirlwind recall campaign, certified in July for the ballot in October, ushered in "the celebrity era of politics," said Democratic consultant Richie Ross, who advised Bustamante. Bustamante declined to be interviewed.

The campaign was dominated by Schwarzenegger's memorable photo ops. In one, he wielded a broom to "sweep" Sacramento clean. In another, he staged the dramatic "crushing" of the Davis car tax.

"People love a show and he was a showman," Ross said. "It was the Super Bowl halftime show of politics."

The condensed campaign allowed little time to scrutinize the candidates. On Oct. 7, with 61 percent of voters participating, Schwarzenegger was elected governor with 49 percent of the vote.

Fiscal problems

But the Terminator didn't solve the state's problems. The recall's more serious legacy remains its long-lasting impact on California's finances.

Schwarzenegger cut the vehicle license fee that Davis had raised, a move that continues to hamper cities and counties that receive those funds. Over the years, the hit to state finances from the vehicle license fee has been about $50 billion, said Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chairman of the Senate budget committee.

Leno said Schwarzenegger also convinced voters to take out $15 billion in debt via "economic recovery bonds" that were on the 2004 ballot. The state is still paying those off, with $1.5 billion due this year - and payments scheduled to continue until 2016.

Much of what Brown calls the state's "wall of debt" was generated during Schwarzenegger's time in office, including billions in delayed payments to public schools.

"The candidate who promised to cut up the state's credit card dug us deeper into debt than any governor in modern history," Leno said. Schwarzenegger declined to be interviewed.

By July 2010, just 22 percent of California voters approved of Schwarzenegger's job performance, according to the state's nonpartisan Field Poll. Ironically, that's the same level of support Davis had in August 2003, two months before he was recalled.

"People got engorged on celebrity - and we've now moved into an era now of emphasis of competency and practicality," said consultant Ross. "It's created this Jerry Brown era where the emphasis is really on not a lot of flash."

Reforms hailed

The attitudinal changes inspired by the recall have started to change Sacramento, said Mark Baldassare, co-author with Cheryl Katz of "The Coming Age of Direct Democracy: California's Recall and Beyond."

He pointed to Brown's 2010 campaign promise not to raise taxes without a vote of the people. Last year, Californians approved Proposition 30, which raises taxes, a major political victory for Brown.

"I wonder if that would have happened if we hadn't gotten to the point where the voters are part of the decision-making process now," said Baldassare, president of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.

The specter of another recall also has made the Democrat-controlled Legislature "very much aware of the power of direct democracy," Baldassare said.

Davis said Schwarzenegger "gets credit" for the "top-two" primary system and a citizens panel to redraw the state's political lines. Both reforms were opposed by both major parties, but were only enacted after the recall delivered a governor from outside the political establishment.

The reforms, designed to create more centrist candidates, could "make a significant difference in California politics" over time, said Daniel Mitchell, professor emeritus of management and public policy at UCLA.

Brown's plan to realign government services from the state level to the local level "is out of the reform playbook" that the recall inspired, reform advocate Mayer said. So was Brown's move last year to reduce the number of state agencies from 12 to 10, consolidate some departments and eliminate others.

But others warn there are some downsides.

South, Davis' former adviser, said partisan special interests backed by big money super PACs and the power of social media could make it easier to recall a governor.

Former GOP leader Steele thinks California's recall drama is not likely to be repeated given the message of the recall a decade ago: "It's a notice to future politicians that they, too, can be vanquished," Steele said.

Feb. 24, 2003: State Republican Party overwhelmingly backs a recall at its statewide convention. Davis blasts their action as "sour grapes."

March 5, 2003: California's Green Party, after hinting that it would join the recall, declines to join the movement, with spokesman Ross Mirkarimi saying the effort would not be viable.

March 25, 2003: Secretary of State Kevin Shelley certifies the recall petition for circulation. Proponents have 160 days to gather nearly 1 million signatures.

April 15, 2003: Gov. Davis' popularity hits an all-time low - 67 percent of California voters hold an unfavorable view of him thanks to the state's $38 billion debt and an electricity crisis; but 60 percent still don't favor a recall, a Field Poll shows.

April 27, 2003: Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County) says he will "seriously consider" running for governor if the recall qualifies for the ballot, which electrifies his fellow Republicans in the state.

May 30, 2003: Assemblyman John Campbell and Sen. Rico Oller become the first state lawmakers to donate to the Rescue California recall drive. Issa starts pumping $1.71 million of his fortune into the effort.

July 8, 2003: Rescue California organizers turn in nearly 1.3 million petition signatures to the secretary of state's office.

July 10, 2003:Republican Bill Simon, who was defeated by Gray Davis in the 2002 election, hints that he is getting into the race, while Issa is backed by GOP business leaders in Southern California.

July 23, 2003: Secretary of State Kevin Shelley certifies the recall election.